1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to the art of cooking vessels especially adapted for use with induction heating cooking devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art:
Some of the desirable characteristics of cooking vessels, i.e., pots and pans, are light weight, ease of cleaning, abrasion and corrosion resistance, high thermal conductivity, good appearance, and reasonable cost. Some of these characteristics may be sacrificed for other desirable characteristics, an example of this being a pancake griddle which may be a relatively heavy unit to obtain high heat capacity and good thermal conductivity.
One of the currently more popular materials for making pots and pans is aluminum. For conventional cooking heat sources such as gas and electrical resistance heaters, it meets all the basic requirements reasonably well. Stainless steel is also popular because of its better appearance, and higher abrasion and corrosion resistance. However stainless steel has the disadvantage of being relatively more expensive and providing less uniform temperatures because of its lower thermal conductivity. To obtain one or more of the desirable characteristics noted above, various laminated wall structures have been devised. For example, the laminated wall may include a thin stainless steel exterior and an aluminum or carbon steel interior. Other examples include the relatively common and inexpensive pans of steel which are porcelain clad on both faces, of steel which is chrome plated exteriorly, and of stainless steel which is clad exteriorly on the bottom of the pot area with aluminum.
These vessels of laminated structure, as well as vessels of nonlaminated structure such as cast iron can all be heated by the induction heating principle. Also, vessels which are especially adapted for induction heating cooking at low frequencies have been devised in which a plurality of armature plates of steel have been arranged to form a depending ring on the bottom of an aluminum vessel as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,739,617 and 2,415,853 for example. however none of the commercially available cooking vessels of which we are aware possess all of the characteristics which we believe desirable in the cooking vessels for use with an induction heating cooking device.
Accordingly, the aim of our invention is to provide cooking vessels having characteristics especially adapting them for use with induction heating cooking devices.